SIMULATION OF SEMI-CRYSTALLINE COMPOSITE TOOLING MADE BY EXTRUSION DEPOSITION ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING.

To date, the Extrusion Deposition Additive Manufacturing (EDAM) process is largely an empirically calibrated system. Therefore, simulation tools are needed to predict residual stress and deformation states in printed parts. Tooling and molds are an initial application for fiber-reinforced polymer composite EDAM. In order to print high temperature tools for autoclave or even compression molding applications, high temperature thermoplastics are required for thermal stability. Carbon fiber-reinforced semi-crystalline polymers, such as polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) and polyether ether ketone (PEEK), are promising candidates. An additive manufacturing platform developed by Dassault Systemes was utilized in Abaqus 2017 to model the printing process of a 3D mold made from a semi-crystalline composite material. Here, custom user subroutines were used to model the transient thermal behavior and the crystallization phase transition of the material during the EDAM printing process. Furthermore, the resulting mold deformations and residual stresses were simulated based on both the thermomechanical and the crystallization shrinkage evolving during the transient process. The results shown in this paper demonstrate the capabilities of the developed simulation tools to predict mold performance and to aid part optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]